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Sect Leader Is Sentenced in Utah

ST. GEORGE, Utah, Nov. 20 —The polygamous leader of a fundamentalist Mormon sect was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years to life in prison for forcing a 14-year-old girl to “spiritually” marry her 19-year-old cousin and commanding the naïve bride to submit to sexual relations against her will.

The defendant, Warren S. Jeffs, 51, was convicted by a jury in September of two counts of acting as an accomplice to a rape. Judge James L. Shumate of Fifth District Court imposed two consecutive sentences of five years to life in prison.

Mr. Jeffs remained seated, his face expressionless, as Judge Shumate announced the sentence. He declined the judge’s offer to address the court, and his defense lawyer, Walter Budgen, said Mr. Jeffs did not want to say anything publicly because he still faces criminal charges for arranging underage marriages in Arizona. In Utah, Mr. Jeffs faces federal charges of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.

Mr. Jeffs was convicted after a week-long trial that included riveting testimony by the victim, Elissa Wall, who is now 21, married and no longer a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a Mormon sect with an estimated 10,000 members. Ms. Wall testified that she told Mr. Jeffs she did not want to marry her cousin Alan G. Steed and later begged Mr. Jeffs to be released from the union because of unwanted sexual contact.

The sect’s teachings state that a man must have at least three wives to reach the highest realms of heaven. The sect split more than a century ago from the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which disavowed polygamy in 1890 in a political compromise to gain statehood for Utah. The mainstream church excommunicates anyone practicing polygamy.

Two weeks ago Judge Shumate unsealed jailhouse videotapes, a mental health competency report and other documents describing the crisis of faith Mr. Jeffs had last winter and his deteriorating mental health.

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Those records show that after a month of praying and fasting in his cell at the Purgatory Correctional Institute in Hurricane, Mr. Jeffs relinquished his role as sect leader during several conversations with church and family members.

“I am not the prophet. I never was the prophet, and I have been deceived by the powers of evil,” Mr. Jeffs said to a brother during a Jan. 25 conversation that was videotaped by jail officials. In another conversation, Mr. Jeffs said he had been “immoral” with a sister and a daughter 30 years ago, according to documents.

Three days later, Mr. Jeffs tried to hang himself in jail. In the days following the suicide attempt, he threw himself and slammed his head against a cell wall , according to the mental health competency report prepared last April. After he was treated for depression, Mr. Jeffs health improved in February, and defense documents state that he recanted his statements about not being the prophet and said that he had been faced with a great spiritual test.

Mr. Jeffs assumed control of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, after the death of his predecessor, his father, Rulon. Mr. Jeffs ruled with unquestioned authority and excommunicated scores of men who were forced to leave the community and their wives and children. Mr. Jeffs then reassigned the women and children to other men that he considered more spiritually worthy.

Mr. Jeffs was on the F.B.I.’s Ten Most Wanted List when he was arrested on Aug. 29, 2006, on Interstate 15 northeast of Las Vegas.